Lady Slipper

Oil on Birch Board 5x5

• Original $125.00 set in a gold / black floating frame

• Showing at Meetinghouse Arts, Freeport, Maine August 1 - September 7 unless sold

• Previously shown at Neiley Gallery and Studio, Freeport, Maine.

Tucked into the heart of my secluded woodland is a secret garden, two hundred feet into the woods, started long before the first shovel broke ground for the house. Hours were spent clearing trees to encourage sunlight to fan the clearing. In the first season, I placed cardboard on top of encroaching growth - it looked more like a graveyard than a place of growth. The second season I backed in my pickup truck, heavy with the best assistance I could ask for, fresh compost, from a local farmer down the road. Garden paths emerged, delineated by burlap bags sourced from an organic coffee roaster a town over.

It wasn't confidence in my knowledge, but a resolve to be a steward of the land that propelled me forward working in the woods two and half hours from home. The 2nd season, amidst the hemlocks, white pines, and birch trees, a single Lady Slipper appeared—a delicate bloom, its petals unfurling in quiet defiance of the wilderness. She wasn't there in previous years, and why now, I didn't question. A lot like myself.

I moved the burlap and fencing around the flower, honoring its presence with the devotion of a caretaker, not unlike a Little Prince on a faraway planet.

My lil’ Lady Slipper didn’t return. At least not to my garden. But the garden was blessed with an abundance that year. I revel in how the soil beneath my feet harbors endless secrets, revealing tiny gems and jewels as only the earth can, changing each season, each month, each year.

The Process

What comes to mind when you say Spring in Maine? The challenge lies in the word Spring. The reality is mud. Or a random late blizzard. By June, in the understory of dry woods and boggy areas, you can come across a Pink Lady Slipper with a 1 to 3-inch long pouch-like flower that grows singly on a stalk emerging from 2 broad, fuzzy leaves at the base of the plant. (Please don’t pick them.) My Lady Slipper was created during one of those late March blizzards while my wood stove kept the house warm. It’s a tiny oil on acrylic, on a 5x5 birch board panel.